Last year at NCAA basketball tournament time, President Obama's "pool" garnered fawning coverage, with New York Times political reporter Michael Shear praising the president's round-ball acumen when some of the president's early predictions came through: "Mr. Obama knows his hoops."

After President Obama selected North Carolina State to advance to the Round of 16, Wolfpack Coach Mark Gottfried sought to explain the pick as simply a move to curry favor among the state’s voters in the coming presidential election

But 11th-seeded North Carolina State’s 66-63 victory over No. 3 Georgetown on Sunday showed that Obama might have been relying on more than political guile when he made such a bold prediction about a team that nearly missed making the N.C.A.A. tournament.